4901:1-13-12
Consumer safeguards and information.

(A)
Each gas or natural gas company shall
maintain a listing including the twenty-four hour emergency number in each
local telephone service provider's directory operating in the gas or natural
gas company's service territory.

No gas or natural gas company shall commit an unfair or
deceptive act or practice in connection with the promotion or provision of
service, including an omission of material information. An unfair or deceptive
act/practice includes, but is not limited to, the following:

(1)
A gas or natural gas company states to a
customer that distribution service will or may be disconnected unless the
customer pays any amount due for ancillary service unrelated to regulated
distribution service.

(2)
A gas or
natural gas company charges a customer for a service in which the customer did
not make an initial affirmative order. An affirmative order means that a
customer must positively elect to subscribe to a service before it is added to
the account. Failure to refuse an offered or proposed service is not an
affirmative order for the service.

(1)
Except as otherwise provided in rule
4901:1-29-09 of the
Administrative Code, a gas or natural gas company shallnot disclose
a customer's account number without the customer's written consent
or electronic authorization, or a court or commission
directive ordering disclosure, except for the following purposes:

The gas or natural gas company must use
the consent form described in this rule, unless authorization is obtained
electronically.

(2)
Except as otherwise provided in rule
4901:1-29-09 of the
Administrative Code, a gas or natural gas company shallnot disclose
a customer's social security number without the customer's written consent
or without a court order, except for the following
purposes (the gas or natural gas company must use the consent form described in
this rule):

(c)
Participation in the home energy assistance program, the emergency home energy
assistance program, and the percentage of income payment plan programs.

(3)
The consent form
shall be on a separate piece of paper and shall be clearly identified on its
face as a release of personal information and all text appearing on the consent
form shall be in at least sixteen- point type.
The following statement shall appear prominently on the consent form, just
prior to the signature, in type darker and larger than the type in surrounding
sentences: "I realize that under the rules and regulations of the public
utilities commission of Ohio, I may refuse to allow (name of the gas or natural
gas company) to release the information set forth above. By my signature, I
freely give (name of the gas or natural gas company) permission to release the
information designated above." The information that the gas or natural gas
company seeks to release shall be specified on the form. Forms requiring a
customer to circle or to check off preprinted types of information to be
released may not be used.

(4)
Nothing in this rule prohibits the commission or its
staff from accessing customer-specific information held by a gas or natural gas
company.

(E)
Upon
customer request, a gas or natural gas company shall timely provide twelve
months of a customer's usage history and twenty-four months of a customer's
payment history to the customer.